Kevin's Watch

Today is the classic sci-fi author Ray Bradbury's 90th birthday.

Do we have many fans of his work here on the watch?



I confess, I started this thread in part so I could share a certain music video that's been circulating the web lately. It is both terrible and awesome, and very NSFW.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1IxOS4VzKM

Have read Ray Bradbury on and off over the years. Have still got a Corgi SF Collectors Library Edition of The Golden Apples of the Sun. I have also enjoyed Dandelion Wine as well

Big Bradbury fan here (even have an autographed copy of A Medicine for the Melancholy ) probably the master of the Sci-Fi short story---I've read almost everything.

The very first piece of real science fiction I remember reading was Ray Bradbury's All Summer in a Day (link is to a downloadable .doc copy of the story) when I was in 4th grade (nine to ten years old). After telling my daddy I enjoyed that, he introduced me to his collection of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which he was a charter subscriber of. I read Flowers for Algernon as it was published in the April, 1959 issue more than a decade after it was published, as well as discovering Isaac Asimov both as a story teller and an essayist.

I have a lot to thank Mr. Bradbury for. He engaged my attention as a young girl, and I haven't looked back since.

What a coinicidence - today I just re-read his short story Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed without knowing it was his birthday.

Happy birthday, Ray.

Farenheit 451 made a big impression on me in junior high. Happy birthday, Mr. Bradbury!

I've always enjoyed Bradbury's stories. I was introduced to his stuff by my eighth grade English teacher. She was really into him. We read Farenheit 451 and a few of his short stories. Probably the first sci-fi writer I read.

I like Bradbury almost as much as I like the video Murrin linked. Pretty freaking funny. Look for the girl at the end who loves Kurt Vonnegut.
It also got me thinking about my eighth grade teacher...

Tulizar wrote:We read Farenheit 451 and a few of his short stories.

I just read that book with my year 12 class (it's in our curriculum). Believe me, for young people the vision of a world without books where you get constantly lulled by media has lost all dystopian potential. For them it's bliss.

What I'll surely avoid next time is showing the movie by Truffaut. If you are a zealous cinéaste crazy about 1960's esthetics you'll love it. The students just were like "WTF is that?"

Vader wrote:

Tulizar wrote:We read Farenheit 451 and a few of his short stories.

I just read that book with my year 12 class (it's in our curriculum). Believe me, for young people the vision of a world without books where you get constantly lulled by media has lost all dystopian potential. For them it's bliss.

What I'll surely avoid next time is showing the movie by Truffaut. If you are a zealous cinéaste crazy about 1960's esthetics you'll love it. The students just were like "WTF is that?"

Heh, I guess book burnings don't impress young adults who would rather watch crap tv and play video games anyway, huh? God, I'm 42 and I feel so old saying that.

BTW, I recently watched Truffaut's 451 and I'd have to agree with your students on that one!